Wood floors remain popular for athletic facilities, particularly for basketball floors. In a typical hardwood floor, a wear layer of floorboards resides over a base, with a subfloor residing below the wear layer and above the base. If the floor is resilient, a layer of pads resides between the subfloor and the base. Among such floors, modular assemblies provide particular advantages for many venues. A modular floor is a floor constructed from a plurality of sections. Modular floors, which include portable floors, may be disassembled and reassembled to allow a particular facility to optimize the usage of a given floor space. Namely, the selective removal of a modular floor allows a facility to accommodate activities that do not call for hardwood flooring.
Modular floors include a plurality of individual sections that connect to adjacently located sections to form a playing surface, for activities such as basketball, volleyball, aerobics and dance. Prior to installation, the sections must be sorted and arranged according to their respective positions within the overall sports surface. A typical modular floor may include up to a dozen different types or shapes of sections. For instance, the floor may include corner, end and connecting sections that have different dimensions and require particular orientations. An installation crew typically begins to position, orient and attach the sections by working from one corner of the room to an opposite corner. This assembly sequence necessarily limits the speed with which the floor can be installed.
One common mechanism for attaching floor sections involves the use of machine screws that are countersunk into the surfaces of the sections, subfloor locking pins and latches that connect at each corner, as well as machine screws placed in strategically positioned subfloor brackets. Even with a skilled installation crew, the time consuming processes of sorting, placing and attaching the sections accounts for a significant portion of floor's cost.
In part because of these labor requirements, there remains a high customer demand for improved floor performance and lower costs. These demands translate to an objective of supplying a floor of high structural integrity, but which requires a shorter installation time. Other goals include easier handling and manufacture of the floor components, as well as fewer floor components. Still, achieving these objectives must not compromise other attributes of the floor, such as the ruggedness and the aesthetic appearance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to simplify and reduce the time and cost of installing a modular floor made of interconnected floor sections.
It is also an object of the present invention to eliminate the speed limitations associated with installing a modular floor from one corner of a room to the opposite corner.
It is another object of the inventor to reduce the manufacturing costs of a wooden floor.